Is the “Green” becoming more “Red” in Taiwan?

Politics and Public policy

credits: https://www.pexels.com/photo/panoramic-view-of-taipei-at-night-taiwan-16705976/

2024, a year of elections in over 60 countries around the world, opened with Taiwan’s presidential election on the 13th of January. The victory of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP, also referred to as the “Green” party) exacerbated Taipei’s relationship with Beijing – the DPP advocates for Taiwan Independence, rejecting the “One China Principle” defined in 1992. The DPP has been leading Taiwan since 2016, chaired by Tsai Ing-Wen, whom Lai Ching-Te, Tsai’s vice president since 2020, will succeed in May. However, this year is the first time since 2016 that their number of seats in the Legislative Yuan – 51 seats – has fallen behind the KMT – 52 seats.

A week before the election, a Chinese YouTuber Wang Zhi’an arrived in Taiwan. Wang is an investigative journalist who used to work for China Central Television but was banned in mainland China in 2019. In 2020, he moved to Tokyo and has since resided there; he subsequently created a YouTube channel, sharing his own thoughts and comments on current affairs. During his time in Taiwan, Wang conducted several interviews with political figures as well as ordinary citizens, along with some food reviews, and posted them on his channel.

On the 11th of January, Wang attended a DPP campaign rally, which featured a speech delivered by a human rights lawyer with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), Dr Chen Chun Han. Wang later commented on social media, expressing his sympathy for Chen, that he saw the appearance of Chen during the rally as a form of exploitation from the DPP, manipulating people’s sympathy for Chen. This argument was supported by the fact that Chen was only placed 16th of the DPP candidates nominated for the non-district legislators in the Legislative Yuan, where typically only the first 8-12 would be elected from the DPP, out of 34 in total, proportional to the percentage of votes a party won. Wang argued that if the DPP truly valued the representation of disabled people, they should not have placed Chen where he could never enter the Legislative Yuan. Another incident highlights the DPP’s hypocrisy towards disabled people: in 2020, a girl with Cerebral Palsy publicly supported the KMT’s candidate and was vehemently attacked by DPP supporters, however, the DPP took no action. This suggests that the DPP only cares about the rights of those who support them.

Later that month, Wang took part in “The Night Night Show with Hello”, a Taiwanese talk show, and was paid. While satirising the DPP’s exploitation of Chen to gather support, Wang very briefly imitated Chen’s involuntary hand gesture on the show. Wang was accused of discrimination towards disabled people, and Chen publicly demanded him to apologise, although Wang later revealed that he was denied direct contact with Chen by the latter’s secretary. Chen further responded that he finds it ridiculous for someone who lives in an autocracy with no free election to be commenting on Taiwan’s democracy. On the 27th of January, 5 days after the show was broadcasted, Wang posted a 20-minute video apologising to Chen, which received over 1.5 million views, one of the most popular of all his videos.

Wang faced severe consequences. In the 5 days between the show and his apology video, Wang’s personal and family information, his home address, company’s address, employee directory and much more were exposed on the internet. Due to Wang’s controversy in China, all his employees, who still live in, or have close ties to China, fearing the CCP’s retaliation, resigned. Wang personally received numerous death threats on the internet and thus was forced to move houses with his family. In one of his videos, Wang concluded that it is most likely the supporters of Falun Gong, whom Wang had previously criticised in his videos, that persecuted him.

Simultaneously, immediately following the incident, the Taiwanese government claimed that Wang breached his rights as a tourist by attending a show and making a profit from it during his stay in Taiwan, and therefore abolished his visa and banned him from entering Taiwan for the next 5 years. Sponsors of “The Night Night Show with Hello” were forced to withdraw under pressure from the DPP. Ironically in October 2023, Wang was in the same situation, having participated in a show and made a profit, except he was criticising the KMT and praised Taiwanese democracy under the leadership of the DPP. He was left alone, exempted from the law. Furthermore, during the 2024 election, numerous Falun Gong-affiliated YouTubers and commentators were invited to Taiwan and took part in many paid activities, however none of them received what was imposed on Wang. One may argue this is due to the prevalence of Falun Gong in Taiwan, whose support the DPP needed to win to secure an important source of votes.

Wang encouraged his followers to call the Taiwanese foreign office to enquire about the disparity in treatment. In one of his videos, Wang shared a recording submitted by an audience, in which the government official claims that usually, incidents like Wang’s would take many weeks to process, however this treatment of Wang likely came “from above”, as opposed to from the people, and thus was so swift.

Nevertheless, of course, Wang deserves to be condemned for his actions and must apologise, however it is unfitting of the DPP to selectively enforce the law. Furthermore, in the DPP’s propaganda, Wang’s original intention of criticising the DPP has been significantly trivialised, in its place his alleged discrimination towards all disabled people in Taiwan and action discrediting the Taiwanese democracy. It is normal for political figures or parties in a democracy to be subjected to criticism, however, the DPP’s reaction is mimetic of the CCP’s actions against critics such as Liu Xiaobo and many more. Freedom of speech is where one does not have to be concerned about state retaliation for what they say.

If one may contemplate whether Wang was discriminatory in his action, Taiwan’s contempt and hostility towards China, both from the government and its people, is doubtless. Language such as “Shina”, an extremely derogatory and racist term referring to the Chinese people (ironically, ethnically including the Taiwanese people), and its derivatives are accepted in Taiwan, which is a shocking phenomenon in a proud democracy. Furthermore, during one of Wang’s interviews with a DPP supporter, she claimed that the CCP and Chinese people are forever connected and that the suffering of the latter is a joint consequence. Such blatant victim blaming is not at all rare in Taiwan, however almost never confronted by the authority, whereas Wang’s arguable brief act of discrimination amid his criticism of the DPP is so heavily broadcasted, so undemocratic.

The DPP is a centre-left nationalist party, opposing the concept of the Republic of China; nationalism perpetuated by the DPP is increasingly escalating the tension between Taiwan and China. However, the overarching consensus in Taiwan, as displayed by Wang through his interviews and experience, is anti-China, not anti-CCP. While the DPP continues to try to separate itself from China, it is perhaps important to reiterate that the international community supports Taiwan’s protection of its sovereignty, but also “one-China”, whether it be the ROC or PRC, and that some actions of the DPP precariously mimics that of the “Red” party of the PRC, its mortal enemy.